The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Cranston Police

SOLICITATION
Officer Lee Sohn reported giving a ticket to a man who was repeatedly warned not to pan handle at the Niantic Avenue exit off Route 10 on May 25. Sohn reported that he recognized the man from prior contacts and asked him, after being told so many times that it was illegal to solicit money there, why he was doing it again? He said the man did not have an answer for him. Sohn said there were no warrants for the man, but this time he was going to get a ticket. He was issued a citation for violating a City Ordinance, with a Municipal Court date of June 19.

SHOPLIFTING
Officer Ross Manzotti reported arresting a woman at the Stop & Shop on Garfield Avenue on May 25. A loss prevention agent at the store told Manzotti the woman had loaded $230.75 worth of groceries into a cart and then walked out the door without stopping to pay. Manzotti said the woman was crying and she told him she had never done this before. She told Manzotti “times are rough” and it was a lack of judgment on her part and she was sorry. Her young son was with her at the time and she told Manzotti the boy’s father was on his way to take custody of the child. After the boy’s father arrived, Alyssa Rodriguez, 24, of 754 Broad St. in Providence, was taken to headquarters and charged with shoplifting. She was later released with a summons.
Officer Jared Hardy was dispatched to the Price Rite store on Elmwood Avenue on May 25 to take custody of a Cranston woman accused of concealing $8 worth of groceries in her purse and leaving the store without paying for the goods. Sheila M. Rossi, 62, of 60 Perkins Ave. was charged with shoplifting at headquarters and then released with a summons.
Officer Salvador Sanchez reported arresting a Providence woman for shoplifting at the Stop & Shop on Garfield Avenue on May 27. Aida Wynns, 39, of 95 Carr St. was charged with stealing $136.93 worth of groceries.
Eric M. Maddelena, 19, of 1392 Plainfield St. was charged with stealing three packages of linguica, a box of frozen burgers, some cough medicine and a stick of Old Spice deodorant from the Wal-Mart store on May 27. He was later released on $1,000 personal recognizance.

WHY THEY GET CAUGHT
Officer John Mastrati reported finding a car on Farmington Avenue on May 29 that had just been reported stolen from a Cumberland Farms on Cranston Street, only several blocks away. He said he and other officers went to 493 Farmington and found the car in the driveway and the man suspected of stealing it in a closet inside his mother’s apartment. Mastrati said that William Perry Cosper, 34, of that address admitted he took the car after he saw a friend at the Cumberland Farms and his friend told him to get into the car that was left running outside the store and drive it home and he would meet him there. Police said they found Cosper’s cell phone in the car and articles of the car owner’s clothing in a bin on Cosper’s deck. Cosper, who has a record of dozens of arrests going back to 1996, was charged with auto theft, larceny and driving on a suspended license.

LOST AND FOUND
Officer Matthew Schaffran reported going to a Florida Avenue home to pick up found property on May 26. A man there said he noticed that a boy who had been in the playground across from his house earlier had left a lunch box and a shoebox behind. The man told Schaffran he expected the boy would come back but when he did not, and it started to rain, he picked the stuff up and put it in his garage for safekeeping. It was now 5:20 p.m. and neither the boy nor his mother came back looking for the stuff. He told Schaffran he had no idea who the boy or his mother was and that he had never seen them before. Schaffran said he took the stuff back to headquarters and made an inventory of it. He said the shoebox contained 10 VHS cassettes and a camera and the lunch box contained $3 in pennies. He put the property in an evidence locker to wait for someone to claim it.

CIGARETTES AND BOOZE
The Cranston Police were called to Phred’s Drug Store just after 5 a.m. on Monday to investigate a “smash and grab” breaking and entering reported by a newspaper delivery person who discovered a window on the northwest side of the building had been smashed out and packs of cigarettes lying on the ground.
Managers from Phred’s responded and reported that approximately 20 cartons of cigarettes and some bottles of liquor had been taken. Evidence at the scene indicates that the break occurred at approximately 11:15 p.m. on Sunday night, when someone threw a large rock through the window before entering the store.
Cranston detectives are investigating the break and reviewing any video surveillance that may have captured the incident.

DISORDERLY
Joshua Carey, 21, of 16 Tweed St. was arrested for disorderly conduct on May 29 after repeatedly being told to shut up and go home by police around 12 a.m. Officer Derik Braga reported that he was familiar with the man and knew him to be difficult when he was drunk. He said the man eventually went home but was making so much noise there as well, that they had no choice but to arrest him when he began to tear up his girlfriend’s apartment, disturbing his girlfriend’s 2-month-old child and two adults he assumed to be his girlfriend’s parents. Braga said Carey tried to break the window in the cruiser with his head and threatened to vomit in the back of the cruiser but merely slightly spit and gagged. He said Carey eventually calmed down and told him he was drunk and he does “stupid [expletive]” when he’s drunk and needs help and was in the process of getting thrown out of another home in Cumberland. He was held for arraignment.